Fort Bend, Brazoria eye new freight line from port

Fort Bend and Brazoria county officials are studying the possibility of a rail line from the Gulf Coast to Rosenberg to handle more freight as the expansion of the Panama Canal next year promises to increase imports and exports from Port Freeport.

A contiguous rail line from Freeport to the Rosenberg area would allow freight to be carried by train between the port and Fort Bend County, and then on to markets nationwide via several major rail lines that pass through Fort Bend, said Richard Fields, a consultant for Port Freeport and member of the 36A coalition, a group advocating transportation options like a potential expansion of Texas 36.

There are now pieces of a rail line along the path, but not one complete connector.

Port Freeport is also currently working on a project to widen and deepen its channel so that it can handle bigger ships, which could be completed as soon as 2017, said Dianna Kile, a Port Freeport spokeswoman.

A rail line combined with that port project could change national import and export routes, which currently tend to favor manufacturers shipping products across the country to southern California and vice versa, Fields said. Instead, they could ship them halfway across the country, then out of Port Freeport and through the canal.

Brazoria County commissioners voted Tuesday to create a five-member rail district - called the Brazoria Fort Bend Rail District - with representatives from both counties and Port Freeport. A previous iteration of the district formed earlier in the year did not allow all of the members to appoint their respective numbers of representatives, said Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta.

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Michael Siwierka, a Houston-based attorney who is one of Fort Bend's members on the rail district, said the group could meet for the first time as early as next month.

There aren't any concrete plans for what actions the district will be responsible for going forward, Fields said.

But he said the counties are studying how much freight is expected at Port Freeport in the coming years and what kind of rail capabilities would be needed to handle that freight. Once those projections are completed, the rail district will have more data to act upon as it determines exactly where the rail line could go.

"The study will look at the question of what number of ships will land at Port Freeport," Fields said.

The district could also potentially issue bonds in the future to help finance a rail project, Siwierka said. He said it could also help different rail operators figure out who carries what goods over whose railroad – coordination that might require rail competitors to pay to use each other's infrastructure.

"That to me may not be that easy," Siwierka said.

Siwierka said that once a rail project begins, it could shake up the existing import and export business, and the rail district could help advocate for the region politically, even in Congress.

"When you're a new kid on the block, no one really likes you until they get to know you," he said.